As our average lifespan increases and people live longer and longer, the elderly population in America and throughout the world continues to grow. In 2009, there were 39.6 million elderly people (aged 65 and over) in America, comprising 12.9% of the population. This group grows each year, and is projected to reach 72.1 million people (19% of the U.S. population) by 2030.
A record number of elderly people need some form of assistance, and are cared for in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, hospitals, or other elderly care facilities, while many are cared for in their own homes or in homes of family members. In 2004, over 1.5 million Americans resided in nursing homes. About 3.2 million Americans resided in a nursing home at some time in 2008. As of 2010, there were approximately 16,639 assisted-living facilities in the U.S., with 1,736,645 beds. And, as the “baby boomer” generation continues to age, these numbers are projected to increase over time.
Additionally, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, there are about 56.7 million people in America (18.7% of the population) living with a disability of some kind, with 38.3 million of those people suffering from a “severe” disability. Many of these people suffer from physical disabilities and need assistance in their daily lives, or are physically unable to perform various tasks. Furthermore, many individuals suffer temporary physical impairments from accidents, and these people also require the assistance of healthcare professionals or family members to perform daily tasks.
Among the elderly and disabled population, falls are a common and dangerous risk. While many of us have seen the LIFE ALERT® commercials showing elderly people saying, “I've fallen and I can't get up,” the problem is a real and serious one for many elderly and disabled people. Each year, one in every three adults aged 65 and over falls, for a total of 2.3 million non-fatal fall injuries for the elderly population in 2010, requiring 662,000 hospitalizations. In fact, falls are the leading cause of injury death for this segment of the population. These falls may cause injuries such as hip fractures, head injuries, bruises, or broken bones. Once on the ground, many people are unable to safely stand up again on their own, due to infirmary, injury, lack of balance, or many other possible factors. Many people will need assistance to rise into a sitting or standing position. If there is a relative or caregiver nearby, they can assist the fallen person to stand. However, helping an elderly or disabled person to stand can take a great deal of strength and is dangerous even for a healthy caregiver. In fact, there are more musculoskeletal injuries to health care workers than steelworkers and construction workers combined. Often, nurses or other caregivers will simply lean over the fallen patient and attempt to help pull them up with their arms, often resulting in back injuries or other problems.
Nursing advocacy groups, including the American Nursing Association, have put forth considerable effort to educate hospitals, nursing homes, and health care workers about the dangers of manually lifting fallen patients, and have developed Safe Patient Handling and Movement (SPH&M) programs. However, there is resistance to these programs by some care facilities due to the fact that the mechanical lifting aids currently on the market require a great deal of time, effort, and training to safely implement. Existing mechanical lifting aids currently on the market take from three to six minutes to move a fallen patient. However, use of some form of lifting aid has been shown to improve caregiver and patient safety, while preventing additional falls.
Due to the incidence of patients falling, and the dangers in trying to lift them up without assistance, there is a clear need for devices and apparatuses that can safely assist fallen people to stand up again, without risking further injury to either the patient or the caregiver.
Types of Patient Lifts Currently Existing in the Art
The most common patient lifts currently existing in the art are various types of sling lifts (sometimes referred to as the HOYER® Lift which is the most common brand name) that comprise of legs at the bottom that form a wide base, a crane-like structure extending upwards, and a sling or straps in which the patient can sit. These lifts were derived from the “cherry-picker” lifts used in automotive shops to lift and move engines and other heavy automotive parts.
Another common type of patient lift in common use in nursing homes today are various types of inflatable patient lifts. These work usually by sliding a collapsed air bladder underneath the patient, positioning the patient properly in the center of the air bladder, and then inflating the air bladder to raise the patient to a higher position, or into a sitting position. These inflatable lifts are similar to air-inflated mattresses and usually require an electronic air compressor and one or more tubes to pump air into the device with sufficient force to pressurize the air bladder and move the disabled patient.
Drawbacks and Potential Improvements
The currently-existing patient lifting devices each suffer from serious flaws that make them large and unwieldy, unsteady, slow to use, and difficult for one caregiver to operate. Many manufacturers of mechanical patient lifts suggest or require that two caregivers be present to operate the lift, which is not always cost-effective or possible, especially in home health care settings. Additionally, many devices currently on the market require a higher degree of patient mobility and strength than the patient may possess, considering they have just suffered a fall and are weak, injured, or disabled enough to require assistance to stand back up in the first place.
For example, the sling lifts currently existing in the art are large and bulky, and many do not collapse for ease of storage and transport. Additionally, due to their nature of having a sling or series of straps suspended from a crane-like extension, they are often unstable, swinging side to side and backwards and forwards as the patient is placed in them and their weight shifts around. This swinging can cause disorientation, nausea, further injury from impacts on the metal frame of the device itself or nearby walls or furniture, and even injury from the patient falling out of the apparatus. Further, these sling-type devices often require a great deal of strength and effort from the caregiver to operate (increasing the risk of caregiver injury), and some even require more than one caregiver to operate, which may not be possible or cost-effective in many situations. It can also be difficult to get the sling or straps underneath a prone or immobile patient, which is required in order to use these types of devices. The straps or sling material are usually porous, and are more likely to transmit infections and diseases when used for multiple patients (such as in a hospital or assisted living facility setting), and thus they may need to be disinfected or discarded, increasing time and expense.
The inflatable lifting devices currently existing in the field also suffer from a number of drawbacks and problems. Similar to the sling lifts described above, inflatable air mattresses are also somewhat unstable, especially as they are being inflated, before they achieve maximum air pressure (even then, they are less stable than rigid surfaces). Due to this instability, use of inflatable lifting devices requires a great deal of training and care on the part of the caregiver for proper positioning and weight distribution of the patient, especially for patients who may be disoriented or alarmed and who move or shift during the inflation or lifting process. These types of inflatable devices must be adjusted to each individual patient based on their size, shape, and weight to make sure the patient is positioned properly and to not exceed the weight limits of the apparatus. In order to use these devices, (i) the patient must often be rolled (which could be problematic or impossible due to patient injuries or lack of space in the area where they fell), (ii) the apparatus is then slid beneath the patient, (ii) the patient is then rolled back onto the apparatus and slid, pushed, or pulled into the proper balanced position in the center of the apparatus. This movement may be difficult for a caregiver to perform (and may lead to straining or caregiver injury), may require external slide sheets or other positioning aids, may injure the patient or exacerbate new or existing injuries, and may cause discomfort or alarm to patients who are confused, in pain, or afflicted with dementia. Due to these factors, such inflatable systems require a great deal of time to unpack, set up, slide underneath the patient, position properly, and inflate; and often patients are disoriented, agitated, or have injuries from their recent fall that require prompt treatment. These inflatable air bladders are also made of materials that may harbor infection or disease, and therefore need to be sterilized between uses.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a patient lifting system that is: compact in size so that it can be used in health care facilities and homes where there is limited space; collapsible to save space and for easy storage; simple to operate so as not to require a great deal of specialized training; easy to use by a single caregiver of average or below-average strength to avoid caregiver injury; made entirely of hard surfaces and are not prone to spreading infection and is thus more sanitary; easy to position and slide underneath the patient to position the patient properly to be lifted; is simple and quick to operate without complicated set-up or positioning; and is stable throughout the positioning and lifting process. However, the present invention possesses each of these characteristics, and therefore fulfills a need in the art. Other advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the ensuing description of the present invention.